LEXINGTON — Rick Majerus was a winner. Everywhere he went, success followed. In a career that earned him a spot in the College Basketball Hall of Fame , Majerus went 517-216 (.705) and won 16 conference titles between regular season and league tournament crowns. In 25 seasons as a Division I coach , Majerus finished with a losing record only once.
There was one obstacle he never overcame, though.
Kentucky .
During his distinguished 15-year tenure at Utah , Majerus faced UK six times; he lost all six . Time and again, the timing was particularly painful for the Utes: Five of the losses occurred in the NCAA Tournament . Three came in consecutive seasons: 1996 (Sweet 16), 1997 (Elite Eight) and 1998 . The last was the toughest to stomach, as it came in the national title game — a contest in which the Utes held a 10-point halftime lead (41-31) before the Wildcats rallied for a 78-69 victory .
More than a quarter-century later, Cody Fueger now is employed by Kentucky, an assistant on Mark Pope 's first-year coaching staff.
Fueger earned his coaching stripes under Majerus, enrolling at Utah and working as a student assistant coach. Known for his outsized personality and quotable nature, Majerus joked after the national-title setback to UK that when he died, "they might as well bury me at the finish line at Churchill Downs so they can run over me again."
How would he feel that Fueger now is tasked with winning games for the Wildcats ?
Fueger noted Majerus' answer, unquestionably, would include words unfit to print in a family-friendly newspaper.
"He'd be very proud of me, but (he'd say), 'That's the only program I never beat' and 'That's the team that just kept on whooping (my) butt,'" Fueger told The Courier Journal in a recent sitdown interview. "He'd be great, though. He'd be happy for me."
Unfortunately, Majerus isn't around to see the fruits of his labor with Fueger. Majerus died in 2012 at the age of 64.
If he hadn't taken such a liking to Fueger decades ago, however, there's no telling where one of Kentucky's newest staffers might be today. And college basketball might be without one of its brightest young minds in offensive innovation.
Majerus was born and raised in Wisconsin, graduating from Marquette University High School in Milwaukee and staying in town to attend the university . He became an assistant on Marquette 's coaching staff in 1971, learning under Hall of Famer Al McGuire . Majerus remained with the program until he ascended to the head coaching position in 1983. After three seasons, he left for the NBA — but didn't move away, joining the Milwaukee Bucks as an assistant. That one-season stint in the pros led to another college head coaching gig, this time at Ball State .
Though Majerus never worked in Milwaukee again, he always returned to host basketball camps.
That's where Fueger crossed paths with him for the first time.
Growing up in the Milwaukee area himself, Fueger attended Majerus' summer camp year after year. Majerus loved hard-nosed defense. And he loved players willing to put their body on the line, hitting the deck to scramble for a loose ball.
Fueger's playing style, to a T.
By the time he was 16, Fueger began coaching younger campers under Majerus' watchful eye.
"I fell in love with that: just getting to know the kids, giving them all nicknames, drawing up plays, doing all the little fun things that you do with campers, and putting them through drills and team stuff," Fueger said. "And I was like, 'Oh, man, coaching would be fun.' And coach Majerus was like, 'All right, so what do you want to do when you're older?' I was like, 'Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll be a high school coach or something. I really enjoy this.'"
Majerus wanted Fueger to aim his sights higher than that. Already entrenched at Utah, Majerus asked Fueger to join the program as a walk-on.
He'd have none of that.
"I'm too cheap. And I didn't want to pay out-of-state tuition," Fueger said. "Then he said, 'All right, come work for me, and I'll give you a scholarship.' So I went that route."
Spend as much time around Majerus as Fueger did, and there are bound to be plenty of memorable stories. Too many for Fueger to count, in fact. Among his favorites involved Bill Marcroft , who was the "voice of the Utes" from December 1966 through January 2005. During a pregame radio interview with Majerus on Jan. 26, 2004, two days prior to his final game as Utah's coach before stepping down due to health problems , Marcroft asked about Jonas Langvad , a freshman forward from Denmark.
"(Marcroft is like), 'All right, coach, tell me about about Jonas. He's kind of gotten a couple minutes here and there as a freshman,'" Fueger recalled. "And so coach Majerus says, 'You know, Jonas Livinggood. He plays hard. He's a great kid.' And Bill Marcroft kind of stops him in his tracks, and he goes, 'Hey, coach. I think his last name is Langvad.' And Majerus, you could sense his frustration, but he's on the air, so he's just like, 'Bill,' — he looks at him really sternly — (and says), 'Bill, I'm pretty sure it's Livinggood.' And then Bill shows him the roster, and he goes, 'Langvad is his last name,' and coach Majerus goes, 'Oh, (shoot), you're right. It is Langvad.'"
Another unforgettable memory with Majerus involved Britton Johnsen . A McDonald's All-American , Johnsen lived up to the hype once he arrived in Salt Lake City, earning a spot on the All-Mountain West team three times and winning the league's Player of the Year award during the 2001-02 campaign.
But that wasn't enough for Majerus.
Talking with the team heading into the 2003-04 season, Majerus conceded Johnsen "was a great kid" who "worked really hard." Johnsen was every bit as diligent with his faith. He took two years off from basketball to serve a Mormon mission. As good a player as Johnsen was, Majerus believed Johnsen had left something on the table by not getting into the gym more often to fine-tune his game.
Majerus relayed it to the team, Fueger recalled, by telling them Johnsen "would have been a way better player if he had done a little less of this" — Majerus bowed his head and put his hands together as if he were praying — "and a little more of this," with Majerus flicking his wrist as if shooting a basketball.
"Britton was a really faithful kid and really took that trip seriously. … And I was like, 'Coach, this guy worked his tail off for you for years, took it all,'" Fueger said with a laugh, shaking his head as he reflected upon another classic Majerus interaction.
Despite his undying devotion and respect for Majerus, Fueger has forged a path that would have been altogether foreign to his mentor. While Majerus' motif was how few points his teams could allow, Fueger's focus is how many points his players can score . And how efficiently. With a bachelor's degree in economics, Fueger loves numbers. As basketball analytics grew in popularity, so did Fueger's interest in them.
"My favorite one is assist opportunities," he said. "That's where I still maybe make the right play, but they don't make the shot. So that's an assist opportunity, and our goal is for over 32 of them a game. If they miss the shot, or whatever happens, it's still making the right play, and it still breeds in your team, 'Make this right play over and over again.' We always make the extra pass or make a play for our teammate.
"That's what builds our team and builds team unity."
Coordinating the offenses at Utah Valley (2015-16 through 2018-19) and BYU (2019-20 through 2023-24) as Pope's right-hand man, Fueger has been lauded far and wide for his originality.
“Cody is one of the most innovative offensive minds in all of college basketball," Pope said after Fueger's hire was finalized in April. "He has a grounded, wild creativity that is pushing the envelope in how this game is growing."
Fueger shies away from the praise.
"It is what it is. At the end of the day, I'm picking something up from somebody, right?" he said. "Like coach Pope and I just go back and forth on what we're thinking offensively, every day, every other day. Like, 'Oh, coach, that's a great idea.' … Or I'm watching something on Twitter or talking to a coach from overseas who says, 'Here's what we do.' A coach from Germany, a coach from France.
"So it's just trying to stay ahead of the curve. We are trying to do things that other coaches aren't doing."
As days go on, Fueger is enmeshing himself further and further into Kentucky basketball's culture and illustrious history . But he didn't come on board entirely unfamiliar with the Wildcats, either.
"I knew a lot about Kentucky because, for me, it was the pinnacle of college basketball," Fueger said. "I remember in '94, '95, '96, I'd be going to the YMCA with one of my close friends, who's actually a huge Kentucky fan. He had the Kentucky college shorts. … And we'd be playing just regular pickup games, and he'd be like, 'All right, let's do our Kentucky defense,' which was a press.
"So we'd just press in open gym as fifth, sixth, seventh graders at the Y, and everybody would be getting (mad). We'd steal it and lay it up. But that was kind of an eye opening."
Fueger also knew of Travis Ford . And Jamal Mashburn .
"I can go down the line, but those are the guys, when I first got to know a little bit about Kentucky, that I was like, 'They're the real deal,'" Fueger said.
Pope already owns his own slice of UK history: He was a member of the 1996 squad that captured the national championship. When Fueger first met Pope, he knew all about his new co-worker.
"He played in the NBA. He was on my favorite team, the Milwaukee Bucks, and he was playing for the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals ," Fueger said. "I went to some of those games, and I watched a lot of those games on TV, so I knew everything about him."
Being in the same meeting rooms, and sharing the practice floor with Pope, was surreal.
"To meet a guy that I was actually a fan of? I've never told him any of this stuff," Fueger said. "We saw the game very similarly. We saw player development very similarly: how to talk to players, how to communicate with players. We just saw so many things the same way. And then we were working early hours, late hours, and spending a lot of time together and (our relationship) evolved into something really good."
Good enough that when Utah Valley tabbed Pope to lead its program in 2015 , he asked Fueger to follow.
"It was kind of out of the blue, to tell you the truth," Fueger said. "Like, we got along and things like that. And when he was involved with Utah Valley, he talked to (then-BYU) coach (Dave) Rose to make sure that he could talk to me. But (Pope) never said anything until he talked to coach Rose."
It's been a dream.
"All that matters is that we win. Get that No. 9," said Fueger, referring to the staff's oft-stated goal of lifting Kentucky's ninth national title banner to the rafters of Rupp Arena . "And my whole goal (since I got here) has been trying to make sure coach Pope is doing well. That's my main thing as an assistant coach: 'Am I taking care of the head coach? What is he thinking about, and how can I help him?'"
Sooner or later, Fueger yearns for that chance.
To put "your stamp on everything." To make every decision for a program, for better or worse. Perhaps in due time.
For now, he's enjoying the ride.
"I've got the best job in the world, right? I'm an assistant for coach Pope, which is absolutely amazing," Fueger said. "But we all want to have our shot and just take a swing at (being a head coach), right? Like, that's why I came to Kentucky. I could have stayed at BYU. I could have gone to another place.
"But I wanted to take the biggest swing, and I'm hoping for that opportunity for myself at some point. The head coach, that's who we sell every recruit on. He's the guy. And I would just like that opportunity to take over a program and see what I can do."
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball's Cody Fueger has made a name for himself with offensive innovation
Local News
Comments / 0